


If You Stay, I Would Even Wait All Night

by orphan_account



Category: Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Gerard's POV, High School AU, M/M, Summer of Like, fluff!, just some, petekey, with angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 02:09:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19219447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Gerard may have been the most oblivious person in the world to his own relationships, but he was slightly less oblivious to his brother's.Or, Gerard's retelling of the first two years of Pete and Mikey's dating.





	If You Stay, I Would Even Wait All Night

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from "Summertime" by My Chemical Romance.

Summer in Monroeville always felt strange. Everyone was used to the constant pressure of school and the worry of what their peers thought. During summer, however, no one really cared about what they wore or where they went or who they hung out with; and so long as they at least kept a somewhat busy schedule, parents didn’t ask questions.

At least, that was the way it was in the Way household. Neither brother really knew what it was like for anyone to operate any differently. Their parents didn’t ask questions about what their sons did or did not do, which was probably a good thing.

Now, Mikey in this last summer was also...rather strange.

Gerard had first noticed Mikey acting odd when school let out. Instead of the dull, expressionless look he wore all the time, like he was bored of the world and just waiting for something interesting to happen, he was more energetic in the only way Mikey could be...a constant thrum of nervous energy, tapping his leg or his fingers randomly, smiling to himself when he thought no one was looking. 

It was nice, actually, to see his brother content for once. Usually, Mikey couldn’t exactly be considered happy...more bored, disinterested. Nothing ever caught his interest for more than a few days or so; he was never passionate about anything.  
~

Later, Gerard discovered why, and while it seemed hilariously surreal, it wasn’t all that surprising, with all things considered. 

See, they lived in a rather large house - it cost way to much and it was why both his Mom and his Dad worked such long hours, but it used to be his Grandma Elena’s so they stayed; it was old and kind of gothic looking, slightly imposing at street view, in a richer area than Gerard had ever liked.

The best part was that sometimes they never realized how big their house was. You could go wandering and not see anyone for hours even if there was a bunch of people in the house. Both Gerard and Mikey liked to wander around, see all the nooks and crannies that the house hid.

It had been a stupidly hot day in early July when Gerard realized. And, well, their old house didn’t exactly have the best air conditioning, so it was also stupidly hot in their house. Understandably, inside the house as about the only place either Gerard or Mikey would take their shirts off. Gerard was wandering again, and it seemed that Mikey was too, because Gerard passed him in the hallway by Mikey’s bedroom, just tracing the walls and thinking. 

Gerard couldn’t really blame him, but it wasn’t the actions that caught his attention - it was the bruises, randomly placed along his collarbone, some darker than others, all fresh and red and angry. There were others by his hips, too, but Gerard had quickly realized he didn’t really want to know about his brother’s sex life or why his partner seemed so very avid on leaving a mark. 

If it made Mikey happier, then Gerard could be fine with it. He just may have started sleeping with headphones on and music playing.

~

He’d been tired, sleep deprived, and wanting a cup of coffee when he figured out who was sleeping with his brother.

He’d spent most of his night in his room, drawing and sketching and getting pissed as time wore on that he couldn’t get this stupid sketch to look right,. He’d spent the last three nights doing that with two different drawings, but whatever.

Coffee was the most prominent thing in their pantry at any given time - mostly instant coffee, which Gerard didn’t mind all too much. At some points, it was the only thing they’d have in the pantry, and the only thing in the fridge would be bottled waters that totally weren’t meant to accompany the Advil for the hangovers.

Sleep deprived or not, Gerard really wasn’t expecting to run into Pete Wentz while trying to get some life-saving coffee. 

Pete never offered any explanations, just made eye contact with Gerard and then pulled a different coffee mug out of the microwave - a Star Wars mug that had ‘Mikey’ written in fading sharpie underneath it, silently finishing his task.

Gerard should’ve been upset - after all, Pete was on the soccer team, and the soccer team had shoved Frank Iero into a locker before, and were mostly just well-known for being assholes. But it was summer, so Pete wasn’t technically on the soccer team, and anyone who would make his insomniac of a brother coffee at three in the morning seemed nice enough to put up with. At least, for now.

~

He’d been finishing up a watercolor painting of Frank when he realized that maybe this wasn’t just some blind summer fling that was going to end in Mikey getting his heart broken and Gerard punching a guy with a lot more athletic ability than him.

He’d been in his room in the basement, meticulously painting in Frank’s messy, never-quite-clean jet black hair when he heard a knock on his door. That should’ve tipped him off, really, because Frank always came in through the window, Mikey always just waltzed in whenever he wanted, and his Mom didn’t even bother going near his room.

Nevertheless, Gerard had muttered a ”come in!” after cursing at the way he accidentally spilled some paint outside the lines. Then he realized that if he darkened the lines that really show it’s Frank, it would look really cool if he fucked up the watercoloring; making the color spill out of where it was supposed to be but then fade off.

He almost completely forget about whoever had come into his room until he heard a decently loud “Uhm” come from directly in front of his door. He looked up only to see a Pete Wentz nervously fidgeting with his fingers and not making eye contact.

Gerard narrowed his eyes and self-consciously held his sketchbook to his chest (okay, enough people knew about his stupid crush on Frank, but Pete didn’t need to), because...What else was he supposed to do? It was a well-known fact by now that Pete was screwing his brother and okay, that is not something Gerard can just get past and have a conversation. “Well? What do you want?”

Pete gulped. “I...I’m worried about Mikey. He - he doesn’t eat enough and he’s way too skinny and - and...yeah...Do you - do you know how I could help?”

Gerard reeled back - he genuinely hadn’t expected that. Not the first part - no, the ‘asking for help’ part. It wasn’t exactly a healthy thing they did, but it wasn’t exactly a secret that both brothers had a lot of self-esteem and self-confidence issues. It wasn’t a secret that was why they had sit through lectures on the lack of food in the cabinets.

Mikey never talked about, and Gerard didn’t ask. Gerard didn’t talk about it, and Mikey never asked. Maybe they should, but then again maybe they should talk about everything that isn’t quite wrong and isn’t right, either - the vodka, the pills, the sneaking out, the sex -. But they didn’t and weren’t going to.

“I - er - uh...just...I don’t really know what you can do, Pete,” Gerard damn near stuttered, blinking rapidly as he pushed back his greasy black bangs. “It’s...mostly what he thinks of himself that makes him do that, I guess.”

Pete nodded like Gerard had actually given him an answer and not a strange avoidance of a non-answer. 

~

The day Gerard realized how much of a difference having Pete around was approximately one week before school started in August.

Mikey had been mostly a buzzed sort-of happy all summer, like he couldn’t really believe that he had something with Pete fucking Wentz of all people. He would smile randomly; sometimes he would mutter entire rants under his breath about things that had never interested him before - the stars and their constellations, colors and how they change at night, things like that. Sometimes he’d be humming a stupid love song that Gerard hated himself for knowing.

And then the old Mikey- the normal Mikey - came back. He stayed in his room for days without leaving, he never gave a shit what he looked like when he did, he didn’t eat anything and he was high or drunk or both most of the time (and every time Gerard had tried to talk to him), and he went back to how he’d been. Almost violently like the way he’d been. Like he was trying to pretend it never happened.

Mikey never told Gerard what exactly had happened, but as stupid as he was even Gerard could figure that one out. So, yeah, Pete had to spend his first day of senior year with a black eye and a bruised rib. And hell yeah Gerard had bruises for it, but it was worth it.

~

Mikey never really got better that year. In fact, he’d gotten worse, if anything. He had a breakdown during the winter.

Their parents weren’t there, but Gerard was, when Mikey had to get his stomach pumped that winter. And you know what? So was Pete. So was Pete fucking Wentz, who Gerard wanted to blame everything on.

But he knew exactly what Pete was going through, and he knew that Mikey’s issues weren’t Pete’s fault (though Pete may have helped out just a little or a lot). He was just worried they were going down a dangerous path.

Gerard wasn’t a fool. He knew that Pete had his issues too - Gerard was, after all, friends with Patrick, Pete’s best friend -, and he worried they would just play off each other.

~

That summer, he shouldn’t have been worried. It was like the school year or whatever fight they’d had never happened. It was summer all over again.

And this time, this time Gerard was trusting Pete not to fuck it up. Because in the light of summer sun, he could see that they didn’t play off each other: they built off each other. Pete helped Mikey eat and feel better about himself. Mikey helped Pete get through his day and not overthink everything

When the sun faded on the last day of summer before Mikey’s junior year in high school, he was sitting on the roof with Pete, resting his head. Gerard knew because he was doing the same with Frank a few feet away - between both couples an army of stuffed animals and their blanket weapons. The sun faded, and Gerard was glad he trusted Pete. 

There was no breakdown that year. There was a constant thrum of quiet, content energy coming off Mikey all that year, and the years after.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts?? Always appreciated! This has been sitting in my drafts for, like, ever, so I figured I would edit it a little and post it! Enjoy!


End file.
